NM Film Exposed!

The Santa Fe Film Festival will stage its third annual New Mexico Film Expo Thursday, Oct. 2, through Sunday, Oct. 5, at the New Mexico Film Museum at the Jean Cocteau Theatre in Santa Fe. More than 85 locally shot feature-length and short films will screen. Visit santafefilmfestival.com/New_Mexico_Films for the complete schedule. A panel of esteemed jurors (including yours truly, apparently) will be there to make recommendations for select films to be shown at the ninth annual Santa Fe Film Festival, taking place Dec. 3 through 7. In addition to all the film-watching, there will be nightly parties and two panels: one on New Mexico filmmaking and the other on Native filmmaking. If you don’t have time for a full weekend of film, repeat screenings of audience favorites will take place on Monday, Oct. 6, at the Film Center at Cinemacafe (also in Santa Fe).

True-life patent-infringement drama not as exciting as genre would lead you to believe

By Devin D. O’Leary

A true-life biopic about the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper? I gotta be honest with you here: It’s hard to not make that sound boring. I’m not even sure Bob Kearns, the guy on which this film is based, would find it a particularly compelling topic. The windshield wiper? Really? Why not a play about the guy who came up with the refrigerator light?

Heavy-handed sci-fi parable lacks clear vision

By Devin D. O’Leary

Fernando Meirelles’ new film Blindness premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival earlier this year to a good deal of bad press. One major edit job and half a year later, and the film is ready for its theatrical debut. It’s difficult to imagine what changes the film has undergone in the last six months, because it still feels like a hopelessly self-important, cluelessly tone-deaf sci-fi parable about ... um, we’ll work that out later.

“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” on FX

“The Vice Presidential Debate” (KASA-2/KOB-4/KOAT-7/KNME-5/KRQE-13 7 p.m.) I’ll bet you a hundred bucks Sarah Palin can’t get through this thing without using the words “hockey” and “snow-machine racing.”

“WrestleMania: The World Television Premiere” (KASY-50 7 p.m.) In case the debate is too intellectual for ya.